Indie, Noise, Shoegaze… Music

Golden Glow: Beauty/Duty (Bleeding Gold Records, 2014)

“Golden Glow, the solo project of singer-songwriter Pierre Hall, is set to release a new 6-track EP, ‘Beauty / Duty’ on 27th January via Bleeding Gold Records, with a sound that echoes the laid-back, idyllic melodies of Real Estate and Wild Nothing. After a series of releases on small boutique labels (Vollwert, Spanner, Holiday – the latter being the label run by U.S. surf-pop band The Drums) those demos became Golden Glow’s first album, ‘Tender Is The Night’ released on Bleeding Gold Records (Flowers, Songs for Walter, Just Handshakes) as well as Mush Records (Bibio, Daedelus, Aesop Rock) in June 2011. Although low-key, the release garnered praise from a wide range of publications including support from the NME, The Guardian, Popmatters, and Rolling Stone France resulting in Pierre and his band made up of various members of Manchester’s music scene being invited to play a coveted slot at the prestigious Manchester International Festival as part of Dave Haslam’s True Faith Series. Other gigs and support slots followed with friends and contemporaries such as The Drums (the band were invited to support them at their debut album launch), Wild Nothing, Crystal Stilts, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Tim Burgess, Yuck and The Wave Pictures to name a few. After some full band recording sessions with an outside producer, Pierre decided the sound was becoming almost too clinical and lost some of the magic that comes with the limitations of using more basic equipment. Pierre decided to abort the sessions and go back to the four-track, the result being the new 6-track EP, ‘Beauty / Duty’, influenced by Felt, New Order, Arthur Russell, Velvet Underground, The Cure, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Captured Tracks’ records”